Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said his government is making a plan to buy paddy straw at minimum support price (MSP) to find a permanent solution to stubble management in the state.

Addressing a meeting, chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav on crop residue management and air pollution control in Delhi-NCR region today, Khattar said farmers will benefit from selling paddy straw at MSP as it will give them an option of earning additional income.

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The Chief Minister said soon a tender would also be floated for the use of 20 lakh metric tonne (MT) of torrefied biomass pellets in the thermal plant.

Khattar said 72,777 machines have been provided to farmers for stubble management in the last four years. He, however, said this year only 7,146 machines have been made available. These include a baling unit, super seeder, and zero till seed-cum-fertilizer drill among others.

“An incentive amount of Rs 1000 per acre to farmers for bailing (in-situ management) is being given by the state government along with transportation charges of bales at Rs 500 per acre limited to a maximum of Rs 15,000 to Gaushalas,” he said.

Khattar said while strictly adhering to the orders of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to control air pollution in the NCR region, Haryana State Pollution Control Board has prohibited the manufacturing, sale and use of all kinds of firecrackers except for green crackers.

The CM said in order to control stubble burning, the state government has implemented a framework, which includes in-situ crop residue management, ex-situ management, effective monitoring, enforcement and wide reach of  Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities.

He said in Haryana paddy is grown in about 4800 villages, which have been divided into three colour zones – green, yellow, and red.

Khattar said various schemes are being implemented effectively at the ground level to ensure stubble management in the state.

He urged Union Minister Yadav to make a provision to provide a loan facility from the bank at a viable rate of interest to the industrialists for having technologies required for the use of clean fuel.

The CM also urged Yadav to ensure that CNG-PNG supply to the industrial areas like Israna, Samalkha, Gohana, and Jhajjar in Haryana at the earliest.